The Anthem
La Dessalinienne
▶ Listen on YouTube ↗“Pour le Pays, pour les ancêtres… / For the country, for the ancestors…”
Named after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, founding father of the world's first Black republic.
The Legends
Names that echo
Emmanuel 'Manno' Sanon
Forward · 1970s
Scored Haiti's only World Cup goals; his 1974 strike briefly silenced Italy's legendary keeper Dino Zoff.
Joe Gaetjens
Forward · 1950s
Haitian-born scorer of the USA's famous 1950 upset of England — one of the World Cup's great shocks.
Jean-Jacques Pierre
Defender · 2000s–10s
Long-serving captain through Haiti's modern rebuild.
Fun Facts
Worth knowing
- 01
Haiti is the first independent Black-led nation in the world, born of a successful slave revolution in 1804.
- 02
At its only previous World Cup, Manno Sanon ended Italy keeper Dino Zoff's then-record 1,142-minute unbeaten streak.
- 03
Compas (konpa), Haiti's irresistible dance music, travels with the team wherever it goes.
At the World Cup
The story so far
Haiti's sole previous World Cup came in 1974, remembered for Manno Sanon's audacious goal against Italy. Reaching 2026 after half a century is a triumph of perseverance for a nation that has endured so much.
Sanon stuns Zoff
Haiti led mighty Italy when Sanon broke through to end Dino Zoff's record clean-sheet run — a moment frozen in Caribbean folklore.
Group Stage